Method and system of neural network loop filtering for video coding

ABSTRACT

A method, system, medium, and article provide neural network loop filtering for video coding with multiple alternative neural networks.

CLAIM OF PRIORITY

This application is a Continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/418,803, filed on May 21, 2019, and titled “METHOD AND SYSTEM OFNEURAL NETWORK LOOP FILTERING FOR VIDEO CODING, which claims priority toU.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/789,952, filed on Jan.8, 2019 and titled “METHOD AND SYSTEM OF NEURAL NETWORK LOOP FILTERINGFOR VIDEO CODING”, both of which are incorporated by reference in theirentireties for all purposes.

BACKGROUND

Video coding (CODEC) is used to compress, transmit, and decompress videodata for viewing images at a remote video display device. Encoders thatcompress the data often use a decoding loop that reconstructions ordecodes the compressed data to determine differences between thereconstructed data and the original video which are referred to asresiduals. These residuals then may be sent to a remote decoder foraccurate reconstruction of the video at the decoder. Loop (or in-loop)filters at the decoding loop of an encoder are commonly used in thevideo coding to improve the quality (both objective and subjective) ofreconstructed video. The loop filters are used at the decoder as well.The loop filters are typically applied at the end of a framereconstruction process and include a de-blocking Filter (DBF), sampleadaptive offset (SAO) filter, and adaptive loop filter (ALF) addressingdifferent aspects of video reconstruction artifacts to improve the finalquality of reconstructed video. The filters can be linear or non-linear,and fixed or adaptive. Multiple filters may be used alone or together.

In addition to these three filters, convolutional neural networks (CNNs)are used as a nonlinear loop filter to substantially improve the qualityof reconstructed video or video coding efficiency. In this case, a CNNis applied as one in-loop filter stage referred to as a convolutionalneural network loop filter (CNNLF). The input to a CNNLF can includethree kinds of data: reconstructed samples, prediction samples, and/orresidual samples. The reconstructed samples are ALF output samples; theprediction samples are inter or intra prediction samples; and theresidual samples are samples obtained after inverse quantization andinverse transform. The output of a CNNLF is the refined and restoredreconstructed samples.

Difficulties arise with the conventional CNNLF, however, because theoperation of the conventional CNNLF usually requires a very large numberof parameters creating an overly complex neural network that increasesdecoding complexity and the computational load, and in turn, the sizeand cost of the decoder hardware, power consumption, and memoryrequirements. This also increases processing delay resulting in lowerperformance.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The material described herein is illustrated by way of example and notby way of limitation in the accompanying figures. For simplicity andclarity of illustration, elements illustrated in the figures are notnecessarily drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some elementsmay be exaggerated relative to other elements for clarity. Furthermore,where considered appropriate, reference labels have been repeated amongthe figures to indicate corresponding or analogous elements. In thefigures:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a conventional loop filtering neuralnetwork used for video coding;

FIG. 1A is another schematic diagram of the conventional neural networkof FIG. 1;

FIG. 2A is a schematic diagram of an encoder according to at least oneof the implementations herein;

FIG. 2B is a schematic diagram of a decoder according to at least one ofthe implementations herein;

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of a method of neural network loop filtering forvideo coding according to at least one of the implementations herein;

FIG. 4 is a schematic flow diagram of a neural network according to atleast one of the implementations herein;

FIG. 5 is another schematic flow diagram of a neural network accordingto at least one of the implementations herein;

FIG. 6A is a detailed flow chart of a method of neural network loopfiltering for video coding at an encoder according to at least one ofthe implementations herein;

FIG. 6B is a detailed flow chart of a method of neural network loopfiltering for video coding at a decoder according to at least one of theimplementations herein;

FIG. 7A is a set of input images for training a loop filter neuralnetwork for a first neural network training alternative according to atleast one of the implementations herein;

FIG. 7B is a schematic diagram of an example frame sequence for thefirst neural network training alternative according to at least one ofthe implementations herein;

FIG. 7C is another schematic diagram of a frame sequence for the firstneural network training alternative according to at least one of theimplementations herein;

FIG. 8 is a schematic flow diagram of a second neural network trainingalternative according to at least one of the implementations herein;

FIGS. 9A-9B is a schematic flow diagram of a process of trainingmultiple neural networks for a method of neural network loop filteringfor video coding according to at least one of the implementationsherein;

FIG. 10 is an illustrative diagram of an example system;

FIG. 11 is an illustrative diagram of another example system;

FIG. 12 illustrates an example device, all arranged in accordance withat least some implementations of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

One or more implementations are now described with reference to theenclosed figures. While specific configurations and arrangements arediscussed, it should be understood that this is done for illustrativepurposes only. Persons skilled in the relevant art will recognize thatother configurations and arrangements may be employed without departingfrom the spirit and scope of the description. It will be apparent tothose skilled in the relevant art that techniques and/or arrangementsdescribed herein also may be employed in a variety of other systems andapplications other than what is described herein.

While the following description sets forth various implementations thatmay be manifested in architectures such as system-on-a-chip (SoC)architectures for example, implementation of the techniques and/orarrangements described herein are not restricted to particulararchitectures and/or computing systems and may be implemented by anyarchitecture and/or computing system for similar purposes unlessspecified herein. For instance, various architectures employing, forexample, multiple integrated circuit (IC) chips and/or packages, and/orvarious computing devices and/or consumer electronic (CE) devices suchas set top boxes, smart phones, tablets, televisions, etc., mayimplement the techniques and/or arrangements described herein. Theneural networks mentioned herein may or may not be operated byspecific-function hardware such as graphics processing units (GPUs),image signal processors (ISPs), and so forth. Furthermore, while thefollowing description may set forth numerous specific details such aslogic implementations, types and interrelationships of systemcomponents, logic partitioning/integration choices, etc., claimedsubject matter may be practiced without such specific details. In otherinstances, some material such as, for example, control structures andfull software instruction sequences, may not be shown in detail in ordernot to obscure the material disclosed herein.

The material disclosed herein may be implemented in hardware, firmware,software, or any combination thereof. The material disclosed herein alsomay be implemented as instructions stored on a machine-readable medium,which may be read and executed by one or more processors. Amachine-readable medium may include any medium and/or mechanism forstoring or transmitting information in a form readable by a machine(e.g., a computing device). For example, a machine-readable medium mayinclude read only memory (ROM); random access memory (RAM); magneticdisk storage media; optical storage media; flash memory devices;electrical, optical, acoustical or other forms of propagated signals(e.g., carrier waves, infrared signals, digital signals, etc.), andothers. In another form, a non-transitory article, such as anon-transitory computer readable medium, may be used with any of theexamples mentioned above or other examples except that it does notinclude a transitory signal per se. It does include those elements otherthan a signal per se that may hold data temporarily in a “transitory”fashion such as RAM and so forth.

References in the specification to “one implementation”, “animplementation”, “an example implementation”, etc., indicate that theimplementation described may include a particular feature, structure, orcharacteristic, but every implementation may not necessarily include theparticular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover, such phrasesare not necessarily referring to the same implementation. Furthermore,when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic is described inconnection with an implementation, it is submitted that it is within theknowledge of one skilled in the art to affect such feature, structure,or characteristic in connection with other implementations whether ornot explicitly described herein.

Systems, articles, and methods are described below related to neuralnetwork loop filtering for video coding.

The Joint Video Experts Team (JVET) associated with the internationaltelecommunication union (ITU) has developed a versatile video coding(VVC) standard to improve compression performance. In current VVC testmodel (VTM) software, multiple in-loop filters such as deblocking filter(DBF), sample adaptive offset (SAO) filter, and adaptive loop filter(ALF) are applied at one of the last stages of a decoding process toimprove the quality of reconstructed frames. The DBF smooths block edgesto remove visible blockiness that might be introduced while coding. TheSAO filter provides offsets to add to pixel values in order to adjustincorrect intensity shifts. The ALF uses one or more sets or patterns offilter coefficients that when applied to decoded pixels of reconstructedreference frames, slices, and/or blocks results in modified image datathat is much closer to the corresponding pixels of the original frame,slice, and/or block data, thereby providing a more accurate, higherquality decoded frame. This may be performed by using Weiner-basedadaptive filters or other types of filters to minimize the mean squareerror between original samples and decoded samples. These filters areused on both the decoding loop of the encoder as well as at a decoder.

As mentioned, a convolutional neural network loop filter (CNNLF) isanother type of in-loop filter that utilizes convolutional neuralnetworks (CNNs) that further refines the image data and removescompression artifacts. A CNNLF has demonstrated promising performancebenefits. See Hsiao, Y. L. et al., “AHG9: Convolutional neural networkloop filter,” JVET-K0222, Media Tek Inc., 2018; Wang, Y. et al., “AHG9:Dense residual convolutional neural network based in-loop filter,”JVET-L0242, Wuhan University, Tencent, 2018; Hashimoto, T. et al.,“AHG9: Separable convolutional neural network filter with squeeze andexcitation block,” JVET-K0158, Sharp Corporation, 2018; and Kawamura, K.et al., “AHG9: Convolutional neural network filter,” JVET L0383, KDDICorp., 2018.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 1A, the conventional CNNLF by Hsiao, Y. L. etal., cited above, uses a four-layer CNNLF 100 and provides both luma andchroma filtration with luma and chroma neural networks (NNs) 102 and 104respectively. In this arrangement, the syntax of CNNLF parameters arelocated in an intra-slice (I-slice) header. The luma NN filter or neuralnetwork structure 102 receives both luma and chroma data 106 and packsthe data to form a six channel 16×16 input 108 including blocks of bothluma and chroma data. The input 106 is received by a four layer NNincluding layers L1 to L4 (110 to 116 numbered evenly). The input 108 isfirst provided to a six channel 1×1 convolutional hidden layer L1 104that outputs 16 channels, then a 16 channel 3×3 convolutional hiddenlayer L2 112 that also outputs 16 channels, next a 16 channel 1×1convolutional hidden layer L3 114 that outputs eight channels, and aneight channel 3×3 convolutional hidden layer L4 116 that outputs fourchannels. This resulting data output from the last layer is in the formof luma values that are placed in four 16×16 channels by an unpackinglayer 118 thereby providing four channel 16×16 output 119 (FIG. 1A) ofluma values to form a final reconstructed frame.

The conventional structure 100 also has the chroma neural network 104that receives both luma and chroma input 120. This chroma NN 104 hassimilar packing and unpacking operations 122 and 132, as well as layersL1 to L4, here numbered evenly 124 to 130, compared to the luma NN 102.Here, however, layer L1 124 receives the input data in 12 channelsinstead of 6 channels to perform the 1×1 filtering and that forms 16output channels. The 12 channels provide smaller 8×8 blocks (8 luma Yblocks and 2 each of U and V chroma blocks) of data.

Relevant here for the conventional CNNLF 100, only reconstructed samplesare used as input to the CNNLF. Frames with a temporal ID equal to 0 or1, which refers to the frame location in a group of frames (GOP), arethe only frames used for training. The temporal ID is thecross-referencing layer that is defined in video codec standards (H.263,H.264, H.265, and H.266 for example). Thus, 0 layer is I-frames, whilethe 1 layer is P-frames between the I-frames.

However, these frames used for training are required to be processedtwice which can cause delay in the filtering such that real-timefiltering cannot be used. Specifically, in a first or training stage,the frames are first encoded when the video coding system generates datarequired for the CNNLF training process and derives CNNLF parameters. Ina second or inference stage, the frames are encoded again when thesystem uses original image data again to generate a final bitstream butnow while performing CNNLF with the parameters derived from thetraining.

The number of parameters for this CNNLF 100 in Hsiao, Y. L. et al. isconsidered a reduction (four layers, 2860 parameters including 2816weights plus 44 bias values) compared to prior techniques. This isaccomplished by adaptively training CNN with video data to be compresseditself (or in other words, online training) because video content isoften similar from frame to frame so that relevant features in a videocan be captured with a smaller number of parameters. However, afour-layer CNNLF is still quite complex compared to an ALF filter. Thus,despite the substantially reduced size of a CNN network (from 8 layersto 4 layers), it still has the relatively large number of 2,860parameters. This impacts the CODEC, and in particular the decodercomplexity. This CNNLF also requires a large amount of training data toachieve good performance. Therefore, it is inherently memory andcomputing intensive, and may lead to substantially higher codeccomplexity resulting in a larger amount and cost of hardware and memory,and/or computational delays and lower performance.

Also in the Hsiao, Y. L. et al. training process, since in one randomaccess segment (RAS), frames with temporal ID (0,1) need to be processedtwice, once for CNNLF training and once for CNNLF inference, thereforethe application of the CNNLF is limited to non-real time encoding only.Thus, it is desirable to further reduce the CNNLF complexity.

As to ALF filtering, there are typically many classes of filters, seeZhang, K. et al., “CE2: Summary report on in-loop filters,” JVET-K0022,CE2 coordinators, 2018. Within each class, there are several filterswith fixed or trained weights. In operation, first a classification isapplied to obtain multiple classes, which gives a partition of a set ofall pixel locations. Thereafter, a set of filters is applied for each ofthose classes. Thus, the performance of ALF not only relies on howfilters are configured, but also on how a classification behaves. In VTM3.0, the following ALF configuration is supported: Classification 4×4,Luma: 5×5 and 7×7, default 7×7, Chroma: 5×5. In some forms, the ALFfilter can be considered as a special one-layer CNN with linearactivation. However, the number of filter coefficients in an ALF filteris usually too small to capture all relevant features in the video. Inorder to match different video content, many ALF filters are used.Therefore, ALF makes up the deficiency of the small number of filtercoefficients by increasing the number of filter classes used.

To resolve these issues, an adaptive convolutional neural network loopfilter (ACNNLF) is disclosed herein and with a significantly reducedcomplexity and lower computational load such that the ACNNLF can beoperated in real time and reduces hardware, memory, and powerconsumption without sacrificing performance and quality. Particularly,multiple alternative or candidate CNN based loop neural networks orfilters are adaptively trained for luma and chroma data from the currentvideo sequence. Each filter may have a small hidden two-layer CNN with atotal of 692 parameters which is less than a quarter of the number ofparameters compared to the conventional CNNLF. The reduced number ofparameters to 692 may include 672 weights plus 20 biases as describedbelow, thereby reducing the processing complexity and memoryrequirements.

The structure of the ACNNLF also enables real time operation because thetraining can be performed without using future frames.

An encoder selects from among the multiple ACNNLFs, such as three, forluma and chroma of individual coding tree unit (CTU) blocks (or justCTBs or just blocks herein) to perform encoding. Since the number ofACNNLF filters (such as three) is small, by one example approach it ispossible to conduct an exhaustive search for the optimal ACNNLF in theencoding process. Then, the encoder selects the best ACNNLF for eachluma and each chroma block from the trained set of multiple ACNNLFs toperform encoding.

The ACNNLF selection then may be indicated in the coded stream to thedecoder. The weights of the trained set of ACNNLFs are signaled in theslice header of I-pictures and the index of selected ACNNLF is signaledfor each or individual CTBs. The details of the signaling arrangementare described below. A decoder may receive ACNNLF weights (threealternative sets for luma and three alternative sets for chroma forexample) and the index of which ACNNLF was selected for encoding anddecoding. The decoder then just needs to use the selected ACNNLF toperform the filtering process for each luma and chroma block duringframe reconstruction.

Using multiple small CNNs trained at the encoder obtains betterperformance than one large CNN, as shown by simulation results. Thesmall size CNNs are used at the decoder to reduce complexity and memoryrequirements there as well. As the number of ACNNLF parameters arereduced, the number of ACNNLFs may be increased to choose from to ensurethe ACNNLF configuration can adapt to diverse video content withoutsacrificing performance.

In comparison, an ALF structure may include one layer, linear activationproviding relatively low complexity but with over 100 filter parametersand about 100 filters where only one filter is used at any given block.Likewise, the known CNNLF structure (FIGS. 1 and 1A described herein)has a multi-layer, non-linear activation with only one filter thatincreases performance but uses over 1000 filter parameters therebyincreasing computational load. On the other hand, the disclosed ACNNLFsuch as that described below uses a two layer, non-linear activationwith less than 1000 filter parameters on as few as three filters toprovide a significantly low decoder complexity while maintaining verygood performance.

A summary of some of the experimental results are as follows. Comparedwith VTM-3.0-RA (where RA refers to random access), the proposed ACNNLFachieves −2.37%, −1.34%, and −2.77% Bjontegaard-delta rates (orBD-rates) for Y, U, and V, respectively, for Class A1 video sequences;0.45%, −10.92%, and −6.19% BD-rates for Y, U, and V, respectively, forClass A2 video sequences; −0.49%, −11.29%, and −10.73% BD-rates for Y,U, and V, respectively, for Class B video sequences; and 0.12%, −3.31%,and −1.62% BD-rates for Y, U, and V, respectively, for Class C videosequences. Other details are provided below.

Referring to FIG. 2A, a video coding system (or image processing systemor encoder) 200 is described for better understanding of theimplementations of the neural network filtering methods for video codingdescribed herein, and is arranged to perform at least one or more of theimplementations described herein. In various implementations, videocoding system 200 may be configured to undertake video coding and/orimplement video codecs according to one or more standards. Further, invarious forms, video coding system 200 may be implemented as part of animage processor, video processor, and/or media processor and undertakesinter-prediction, intra-prediction, predictive coding, and residualprediction. In various implementations, system 200 may undertake videocompression and decompression and/or implement video codecs according toone or more standards or specifications, such as, for example, H.264(MPEG-4), advanced video coding (AVC), VP8, H.265 (High Efficiency VideoCoding or HEVC), VP9, Alliance Open Media Version 1(AV1), and others.Although system 200 and/or other systems, schemes or processes may bedescribed herein, the present disclosure is not necessarily alwayslimited to any particular video encoding standard or specification orextensions thereof.

As used herein, the term “coder” may refer to an encoder and/or adecoder. Similarly, as used herein, the term “coding” may refer toencoding via an encoder and/or decoding via a decoder. A coder, encoder,or decoder may have components of both an encoder and decoder.

For the example video coding system 200, the system may be an encoderwhere current video information in the form of data related to asequence of video frames may be received for compression. The system 200may partition each frame into smaller more manageable units, and thencompare the frames to compute a prediction. If a difference or residualis determined between an original block and prediction, that resultingresidual is transformed and quantized, and then entropy encoded andtransmitted in a bitstream out to decoders or storage. To perform theseoperations, the system 200 may include input pictures 202 (also referredto interchangeably herein as images or frames) that may be re-orderedand partitioned by a partition unit 201 to form coding tree units (CTUs)of original frame data before being provided to a subtraction unit 204as well as prediction unit 218. The CTUs are also provided to a neuralnetwork loop filter unit 230 that performs filtering on a block-by-blockbasis as described below.

The system 200 also may have a transform and quantizer unit 206 thattransforms residuals resulting from the subtractor 204 into coefficientsusing discrete cosine transform techniques (DCT) or similar techniques,and then quantizes the coefficients to perform lossy compression. Thetransform and quantization coefficients are then provided to an entropyencoder 208 for lossless compression and transmission.

The output of the quantizer 206 also may be provided to a decoding orprediction loop 240 provided at the encoder to generate the samereference or reconstructed blocks, frames, or other units as would begenerated at a decoder 250 (FIG. 2B). Thus, the decoding loop 240 mayuse inverse quantization and inverse transform unit 210 to reconstructthe frames. Other assemblers such as a residual assembler and predictionunit assembler are not shown on the loop for clarity. An adder 212 andthe assemblers are used to reconstruct the units used within each frame.

The decoding loop 240 then provides a filter unit 214 to increase thequality of the reconstructed images to better match the correspondingoriginal frame. This may include a deblocking filter (DBF) 224, a sampleadaptive offset (SAO) filter 226, an Adaptive Loop Filter (ALF) 228, anda NN loop filter (NNLF) unit 230 as described above. The NNLF unit 230provides an ACNNLF described herein to further refine the image data byworking as a nonlinear filter. By one form, the neural network-basedloop filters are applied to the output of the ALF as shown on filterunit 214.

A filter control 232 also may be provided and performs filter controloperations described in detail herein and to refine the image data of areconstructed frame. By one form, an online training stage of the ACNNLFforms multiple alternative filters. The filter control 232 may test thefilters and select the filter among them with the best results. This mayinclude a selection based on bit cost, image quality based on noise forexample, and/or other factors. As described below, the filter selectionwhen provided as well as filter coefficients and other filter data maybe provided to the entropy encoder 208 to transmit the filter data alongwith the image data.

The decoding loop 240 also may have a decoded picture buffer (not shown)to hold reference frames 216. Otherwise, the filter unit 214 providesthe now reconstructed and refined (by the filters) frames 216 to theprediction unit 218 to be used as reference frames for inter-prediction.

Thus, the encoder 200 also has the prediction unit 218 with anintra-predictor unit 220 and an inter-predictor unit 222 to selectprediction modes and form prediction blocks. The prediction blocks arethen provided both to the subtraction unit 204 to generate a residual,and in the decoding loop to the adder 212 to add the prediction to theresidual from the inverse transform unit 210 to reconstruct a frame. Theprediction mode and other prediction data may be provided to the entropyencoder 208 for compression and transmission as well.

In some examples, video coding system 200 may include additional itemsthat have not been shown in FIG. 2A for the sake of clarity. Forexample, video coding system 200 may include a processor, a radiofrequency-type (RF) transceiver, splitter and/or multiplexor, a display,and/or an antenna. Further, video coding system 200 may includeadditional items such as a speaker, a microphone, an accelerometer,memory, a router, network interface logic, and so forth. Some of thesecomponents are shown on other implementations described herein.

Referring to FIG. 2B, a system 250 may have, or may be, a decoder, andmay receive coded video data in the form of a bitstream and that has theimage data (chroma and luma pixel values) as well as context dataincluding residuals in the form of quantized transform coefficients,prediction data such as motion vectors, identity of reference blocks,and prediction modes for individual blocks, filter coefficients, andfilter selection indicating which filter (or neural network or ACNNLF)was actually used when the filter selection is performed at the encoder.The system 250 may process the bitstream with an entropy decoding module252 to extract chroma and luma pixel data, and the other transmitteddata including the filter data. The entropy decoder 252 may use one ormore of the methods described below to perform the filtering, and whenthe filter selection is provided in the bitstream, the decoder may justperform the filtering of the selected filter mode rather than performthe filtering with all of the multiple filters mentioned above.

Once the data is extracted, the system 250 then may use an inversequantizer module 254 and inverse transform module 256 to reconstruct theresidual pixel data. The system 200 then may use assemblers (not shown)and an adder 258 to add the residual to a reconstructed predicted blockand to reconstruct an entire frame. The reconstructed frame is thenprovided to the filter unit 260 that also has a DBF unit 262, SAO unit264, ALF unit 266, and one or more NNLF units 268, as described withencoder NNLF unit 230 as described herein. The filter unit 200 mayperform the filtration in the order just listed or other order asdesired and as mentioned for the encoder side. Also as mentioned, whenthe filter mode selection is provided in the bitstream, only that filterneeds to be operated, for example when there is a choice among themultiple ACNNLF filters generated during the online training of theACNNLFs as described with the encoder 200. The refined frame is thenprovided to a prediction unit 270.

The prediction unit 270 may decode the resulting data using a decodingprediction technique employed depending on the coding mode indicated insyntax of the bitstream and implemented via prediction mode switch orselector 276. Either a first path was used including an intra predictionmodule 274 or a second path that is an inter-prediction decoding pathincluding one or more filters of the filter unit 260. The second pathmay have a decoded picture buffer to store the reconstructed andfiltered frames for use as reference frames as well as to send off thereconstructed frames for display or storage for later viewing or anotherapplication or device. A motion compensated predictor 272 utilizesreconstructed frames from the filter unit as well as motion vectors fromthe bitstream to reconstruct a predicted block. The prediction modesselector 276 sets the correct mode for each block as mentioned, wherethe prediction mode may be extracted and decompressed from thecompressed bitstream. The prediction blocks from the prediction unit 270are then provided to the adder 258. The functionality of modulesdescribed herein for systems 200 and 250, except for the filter unit forexample and described in detail herein, are well recognized in the artand will not be described in any greater detail herein.

Referring now to FIG. 3, an example process 300 for neural network loopfiltering for video coding is arranged in accordance with at least someimplementations of the present disclosure. Process 300 may include oneor more operations 302-310, generally numbered evenly, performed, forexample, by neural networks 400 or 500, and system 200, 250, or 1000 ofFIG. 4, 5, 2A-2B, or 10 respectively, and where relevant.

Process 300 may include “obtain compressed image data of at least oneframe of a video sequence” 302. On the encoder, this refers to obtainingcompressed data on the decoder loop. On the decoder, this refers to thecompressed data received from a transmitted bitstream. In either case,this involves both luma and chroma data (or Y, U, and V) data that is tobe input to the neural networks.

Process 300 may include “decode the at least one frame to form areconstructed version of the frame” 304. Whether at the encoder or thedecoder, this refers to reconstructing the frames, and by one example,by inverse transducing and inverse quantization, and so forth until thereconstructed frame is ready for neural network filtering. This may ormay not include the operation of the other in-loop filters such as DBF,SAO, and ALF for example. By one form, at least these three filters havebeen applied, and the ALF filter is providing reconstructed image dataof a frame to a neural network, or ACNNLF, filter unit described herein.

Process 300 may include “apply multiple alternative convolutional neuralnetworks to at least the same part of the reconstructed version of atleast one frame” 306. As described in detail below, and at the decodingloop of the encoder, multiple convolutional neural networks may beapplied to the same region or block of a frame, and the ACNNLF may beapplied block by block. By one form, the neural networks each orindividually have only two convolutional layers to provide a lowcomplexity neural network that will reduce delay, computational load,hardware requirements, power consumption, and so forth, and which alsoassists to enable real-time operation. The details of the structure areprovided below.

The neural networks may be trained during run-time on a current videosequence being coded. This also may involve input training sets thatinclude image data of already decoded reconstructed frames, whichenables real-time or near real-time operation, such as a certain numberof consecutive frames before a current frame being decoded or on onlyi-frames previously decoded. By one example, the image data for thetraining set may or may not be obtained from the same group of picturesor random access segment. The training is performed by partitioningneural network output into gains, output reconstructed image data thatbecomes closer to the original data values than the input data, andlosses, output reconstructed image data that is farther from the valuesof the original image data than the input data. By one form, only theloss subset is used to add additional neural networks once two neuralnetworks are formed. The details are provided below.

Process 300 may include “select one of the neural networks based on atleast one criterion” 308. At the encoder, this simply involves comparingthe output of the alternative neural networks to determine which has thebest image data value output to refine the reconstructed frame, and thismay be performed on a block by block basis but could be based on otherregions such as slices or the entire frame. This also may include aselection based on bit cost, image quality based on noise for example,block level, or other level, differences with original image data of thecurrent reconstructed frame such as by sum of all differences (SAD),mean square error (MSE), structural similarity index measure (SSIM),peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), video multi-method assessment fusion(VMAF), and/or other differences or other factors, where many of thesecomparisons are comparisons to, or using, the original image data.

The encoder also may place at least the selected neural network in theencoded bitstream to be provided to a decoder. By one form, the encoderprovides the selected neural network and the identity of the selectedneural network so that the decoder can simply use the selected neuralnetwork without the need to perform the selection itself. In this case,all alternative neural networks may or may not be provided to thedecoder. Otherwise, the decoder may receive all alternative neuralnetworks and the identification of the selected neural network so thatthe decoder has all NN filter data necessary for any NN selection forany block on a frame.

Process 300 may include “refine the image data of the part comprisingusing the output of the selected convolutional neural network” 310. Byone form, the output of the neural networks are image data values,whether luma or chroma depending on which type of data is beinganalyzed, and when an alternative neural network (or filter or ACNNLF)is selected, then the output of the neural network or filter replacesthe input reconstructed frame or block image data. By another approach,the output of the neural networks could be delta or change values thatare to be added to the original data values. The refined image data inthe form of reference frames is then provided for inter-prediction atthe encoder. In this case, all of operations of process 300 areperformed at the encoder. The identification of the selectedconvolutional neural network as well as the alternative neural networksmay be transmitted to the decoder to perform the refining operation aswell as described below. In this alternative, the encoder performs theoperations of process 300 except for the refining operation 310, whichis performed at the decoder.

Referring to FIG. 6A, an example process 600 for neural network loopfiltering for video coding is arranged in accordance with at least someimplementations of the present disclosure, and as operated by anencoder. Process 600 may include one or more operations 602-624,generally numbered evenly, performed, for example, by neural networks400 or 500, and system 200, 250, or 1000 of FIG. 4, 5, 2A-2B, or 10respectively, and where relevant.

Process 600 may include “setup initial neural network structure” 602.This refers to the offline operations are preparing and storing theneural network templates or structure that is to be filled in or trainedduring run-time, but could be performed offline as well. By one form, toreduce computational load, this may involve “use only two convolutionallayers per CNN” 604. The details are as follows.

Referring to FIG. 4, an example structure of a low complexity adaptiveneural network loop filter (ACNNLF) 400 for luma (Y) is provided. TheACNNLF 400 has two hidden neural network layers 404 and 406 between aninput layer 402 and an output layer 408. Packing and/or unpackingoperations are performed at the input and output layers 402 and 408. Forpacking for luma (Y) subblocks for example to form input layer 402, ifone to-be-processed block has a Width×Height, then 2×2 subsampling isapplied to generate four stacked subblocks of size Width/2×Height/2 sothat each subblock has one of the luma values from each 2×2 sample. Eventhough the ACNNLF 400 is for luma data, chroma input is used as well asanother factor or parameter to increase the accuracy of the output lumadata. Thus, two chroma blocks, which are originally a quarter of thesize of the corresponding luma block for the same area of a frame, areset to be the same size as the luma subblocks by obtaining a singlechroma value from each 2×2 sample. The four luma subblocks and the twochroma subblocks are stacked together to generate six stacked subblocksof size Width/2×Height/2 as the filter input, and are described as sixinput channels.

At output or unpacking layer 408, the unpacking is performed by using aresidual or difference between the output image data from the layer 406and the input image data of the initial layer 402 as the input to theunpacking neural networks, which is indicated by the arrow and +sign412. The resulting output is a stack 410 of four luma subblocksdescribed as four output channels, and the output values are luma valuesthat can replace input reconstructed luma data of corresponding pixellocations as described below. Details for the layers are as follows.

For the input layer 402 and the output layer 408, image block (orchannel) sizes are N×N pixels. The default for N is 32. N can vary withframe size. For example, a large frame size (such as 2K, 4K, or 1080P)video may use N=32 or 16, while a small frame size video may use N=16 or8.

For a first CNN layer 1 404, the filter size is L1×L1, where L1 can be 1or 3 with a default value of 1. A ReLU (Rectified Linear Unit) layer isapplied after the first CNN layer 404 as a non-linear activationfunction, and particularly after each filter. Examples herein use L1=1.

For the second CNN layer 2 406, a filter size is L2×L2, where L2 can be1, 3, 4, or 5 with a default value of 4. By one form, no ReLU layer ispresent after the second CNN layer 406, and the outputs may be provideddirectly to the next layer. In the examples herein 3 is used, while inexperiments described below, L2=3 was used.

For output channels of the first CNN layer 404, M is the number ofchannels, features, or output values, and at a pixel level for a 1×1filter when L1=1, so that M can vary with frame size with 16 or 42 for alarge frame size (such as 2K, 4K, or 1080P), and 8 or 16 for a smallframe size. The default is M=16.

The input and inner layers of the ACNNLF 400 is the same for luma andchroma. Thus, ACNNLF 400 would be the same for chroma except that theunpacking or output layer 408 and output stack 410 has two chroma blocks(two channels) rather than four luma blocks. The input for a chromaACNNLF is still four luma subblocks and two chroma subblocks asdescribed above for the luma ACNNLF. The difference is the training inthe neural networks as describe below where the chroma CNNs are trainedto output chroma values rather than luma values.

Referring to FIGS. 1A and 5, the conventional structure 100 is incontrast to the disclosed methods that use a filter or network 500 withinput 50 and layers 504, 506, 508, and 510 similar to the layers onnetwork 400 except here M=16, L1=1, and L2=3. In contrast to theconventional structure 100 (FIG. 1A), only as few as two hiddenconvolutional layers 504 and 506 may be used while the known filter 100uses four convolutional layers 110, 112, 114, and 116. Thus, as shown,the known CNNLF layers are reduced from four to two layers significantlydecreasing the complexity of the neural network.

Returning to process 600, an online training technique may be performedfor training the ACNNLFs. An initial operation is to “form initial fulltraining dataset” 606. In order to enable run-time or online training,process 600 may include “use data of set of previously decoded frames”608. Thus, the training data may come directly from video sequences thatare to be compressed. This may be accomplished in a number of ways.

Referring to FIGS. 7A-8 for one alternative, this involves the operation“use consecutive frames” 610, and particularly to provide the image datafor the initial or full training set (or dataset). In one specificexample, the training set 700 (FIG. 7A) may be formed from image data ofa video sequence of frames. This training set 700 was used as a class Btest set in the experiments mentioned below. The training is done for asequence of frames 724 of each or individual random access sequence(RAS) or group of pictures (GOP) 1-10 722 shown here on a series 720(FIG. 7B) of RASs to be compressed, where each RAS has a certain numberof frames 726 such as 63 shown here.

In order to form the training set to compress data of a current frame, Fframes of video data are used including the current frame and theprevious F—1 frames. As shown in FIG. 7C, a total of F frames 750 ofdata are collected as training data set 750 for RAS data from one ormore of the RAS 722 for example including the previous F-1 frames (inencoding order) and the current frame F. In the present example andexperiments performed, F=8 was used as shown here on the training framesequence 750.

By one form, the current frame is in a current RAS, and previous framesF−1 for training are from a previous RAS. In this example, and since thetraining requires frames from a previous RAS, ACNNLF is disabled for RAS#0. In this case, the training set is not limited to a single RAS or GOPand can overlap with multiple RAS's. By one option, the previous F−1frames still all must be in the same frame albeit without the currentframe. By another approach, the entire training sequence including thecurrent and previous frames remain in the same single RAS or GOP. In anyof these options, the sequence 750 of F frames to be used for trainingfor a current frame must be consecutive in encoding order, althoughother options exist such as intervals by number of frames or by frametype or both.

Referring to FIG. 8, thus, process 600 alternatively may include “buildtraining set depending on I-frames” 612, and for the training.Generally, frames (or pictures or images) of a video sequence may beclassified by which mode can be used to reconstruct the frame, and wheninter-prediction is being used, which reference frames may be availablefor such reconstruction. Typically, I-frames do not useinter-prediction, or in other words, reference frames or temporal blockmatching is not used for I-frames, and I-frames only use intraprediction that uses spatial block matching within the frame itself.This ensures the I-frames will be more accurate at the sacrifice of lesscompression of the I-frame. Thus, I-frames often form the most importantframes of a video sequence such as the first frame of each scene, andare used as reference frames to reconstruct many of the other frames inthe video sequence. Here, one I-frame per RAS or GOP may be used. Often,the RAS may have only one RAS but that is not always true. If more thanone RAS exists, than the training may be limited to the first I-frame inthe RAS, or other such interval. The I-frames are used as referenceframes for P-frames that only use previous frames as reference framesand/or B-frames that can use both previous and subsequent frames asreference frames.

In operation, the training process 800 may include obtaining a videosequence 802 of a scene and including an I-frame image of a scene. Theprocess 800 then encodes 814 the I-frame 802 and re-constructs it byusing only the intra image data, or in other words, the data on theimage itself. The reconstructed frame 804 is designated temporalidentification (TID) zero (TID=0) along the video sequence of which itis part. Then, the re-constructed I-frame TID=0 can be used as areference picture 820 to encode 812 other frames TID=1, 2, 3, and 4 ofthe video sequence 802 for example. All of the re-constructed picturesare placed 818 and 822 into a database to form part of the trainingdataset 808.

By this form, the training data will include only the I-frame and adesigned number of other frames (such as P-frames and/or B-frames forexample) that used the I-frame directly as a reference frame. This couldbe limited to a single RAS, but otherwise may include more than oneI-frame and its dependent frames, and when multiple I-frames are used,the training set may be obtained from frames from more than one RAS. Byanother option, indirect reference frames could be included as well,where for example, an I-frame may be a reference for a P-frame, and theP-frame may be a reference for a B-frame. In that case, the B-framecould also provide image data for the initial or full training set.

By another option, only I-frames are used for training. The I-frames areobtained from multiple RASs when only one I-frame is provided for eachRAS, but otherwise also when there is not enough I-frames in a singleRAS to fill the training dataset.

Both training alternatives can support the online training method. Theconsecutive frame alternative can use the existing data in the encodingprocess to reduce computational overhead, but may need more memory tosave that data. The I-frame alternative can generate the data while thetraining process is being used and can release that data after trainingis complete to reduce the memory requirement relative to the consecutiveframe option because using consecutive frames is mainly for the purposeof increasing the size of the training data set without impactingreal-time performance. The computational overhead for this I-framealternative, however, is higher than the consecutive frame alternative.

For all or individual training video frames, both the luma and chromadata of original frames and the re-constructed frames (before ACNNLFprocessing) are collected and formed into a database for the onlinetraining process. Each frame is partitioned into small image blocks ofsize N×N for training of the CNNLFs for compatibility with the CNNstructure 400 or 500 for example.

Process 600 may include “train neural network to form multiplealternative neural networks” 614. Referring to FIGS. 9A-9B for thetraining, a process 900 for training multiple alternative CNNs forneural network loop filtering for video coding is arranged in accordancewith at least some implementations of the present disclosure. Process900 may include one or more operations 960 to 992, generally numberedevenly. The other numbered items on the diagram of process 900 aretraining sets or data, or neural networks that are used during theprocess.

Process 900 may start with training 960 one ACNNLF (or an initial neuralnetwork or CNN No. 1) 904 by applying the CNN 904 to an initial fulltraining set 902. The CNN 904 has the structure described in NN 400(FIG. 4), and the initial or full training set 902 is as described aboveand may include image data of multiple frames as described withoperation 606. As mentioned above, and by one form, eight frames worthof reconstructed luma and chroma image data may be used in the initialtraining set 902, and may have image data of blocks (CTUs) arranged inthe six input blocks or channels described above. Going forward, eachgeneration of a column of one or more neural networks on the diagram ofprocess 900 and after a training operation may be considered end ofanother iteration of the neural networks.

Process 900 then may include classifying 962 the output data from theinitial neural network 904. Thus, the first trained ACNNLF 904 may beconsidered to be part of a classifier since it provides output that canbe classified into subsets. The partitioning of the output data from theneural network 904 can be accomplished by using a number of differentcriteria. By one example, the output data is partitioned or separatedinto gain blocks and loss blocks. Gain refers to output image databecoming closer in value to original image data of the same pixellocation compared to the input reconstructed image data, and loss refersto output image data becoming farther in value from original image dataof the same pixel location compared to the input reconstructed imagedata. The input here between the first and second iterations refers tothe data forming the initial full training set 902. The net code rategain (or just gain) and the net code rate loss (or just loss) may becomputed as follows.

$\begin{matrix}\left\{ \begin{matrix}{\left. {If}\mspace{14mu} \middle| {0 - R_{in}} \middle| {> \left| {0 - R_{out}} \right|} \right.,\ {{then}\mspace{20mu}{net}\mspace{20mu}{result}\mspace{20mu}{is}\mspace{14mu} a\mspace{20mu}{gain}}} \\{{Else}\mspace{14mu}{net}\mspace{14mu}{result}\mspace{14mu}{is}\mspace{14mu} a\mspace{14mu}{loss}}\end{matrix} \right. & (1)\end{matrix}$

where O may be the representative of a block of original image data,R_(in) may be a representative of a block of reconstructed image datainput to the neural network being trained as described herein, andR_(out) may be a representative of a block of reconstructed image datathat is the output of the neural network being trained. Therepresentations O, R_(in), and R_(out) may simply be the sum of luma orchroma image data in the designated block or other frame part, but couldbe an average or other combination of the image data, or singlerepresentative such as a minimum or maximum image data value of a singlepixel in the block. By another form, each ∥ term is a sum of absolutedifferences (SAD) of individual corresponding pixel locations in theblock, and these two SADs are compared to determine whether a block is again block or a loss block. While this is performed on a block-by-blockbasis, the variables or representations O, R_(in), and R_(out), couldrepresent slices, frames, or other frame parts.

The gain blocks are collected to form a gain set or subset ofreconstructed and now refined image data, and the loss blocks arecollected to form a loss set or subset of the refined reconstructedimage data. Thus, the blocks of reconstructed output image data yieldinga net code rate gain are assigned to a gain set CNN No. 1 training set(906), and the blocks of reconstructed output image data yielding a netloss are assigned to a loss set CNN No. 2 training set (908).

Process 900 then may include further training 964 and 966 of the neuralnetwork 904 by separately applying the neural network 904 to both thegain subset 906 and the loss subset 908 to generate trained gain neuralnetwork (a modified CNN No. 1) 910 and trained loss neural network (amodified CNN No. 2) 912 to complete a second iteration.

Process 900 then may combine the output of the trained gain neuralnetwork 910 and trained loss neural network 912 to form a new entiretraining set 914. The trained gain neural network 910 and trained lossneural network 912 are then applied to, or run with (968 and 970), theentire training set 914. A classifying operation 972 is performed tore-partition or separate the output of both the trained gain neuralnetwork 910 and the trained loss neural network 912 into gain blocks andloss blocks again. The latest gain blocks or data of each of the trainedneural networks 910 and 912 is kept separate and forms an updated gainsubset (CNN No. 1 training set) 974 and (CNN No. 2 training set) 976,while the loss blocks or data from both trained neural networks 910 and912 is collected into a single loss subset (CNN No. 3 training set) 920.

Thereafter, process 900 may include training 974 and 976 the neuralnetworks 910 and 912 with the gain training sets 974 and 976respectively, and resulting in trained neural networks (CNN No. 1) and(CNN No. 2) 922 and 924 respectively for a third iteration of theseneural networks. A new loss neural network is formed by training a newneural network 926 (without prior iterations) with the latest losstraining set 920.

Process 900 may repeat these iterations until a desired number ofACNNLFs are generated and/or the training data is exhausted. Thetraining data is considered exhausted when each training block has atleast one trained filter that can yield a gain and no significant lossset is available to train another filter. This may occur when a loss setdoes not have a sufficient number of training blocks. When the desirednumber of neural networks is reached but the training data set is notexhausted, then the latest CNN (or ACNNLFs) Nos. 1 (922), 2 (924), and 3(926) may repeat the classifying and training operations but bypartitioning the output data, generated by applying the neural networksto a new entire training set, to the same number of neural networks(here three) as before.

Regardless of the number of iterations and alternative neural networksgenerated up to this point, process 900 then may include a lastiteration or final training loop. In the last iteration, the output dataof all of the trained neural networks (or ACNNLFs) 922, 924, and 926 arecollected into a single entire training set 928, and the ACNNLFs 922,924, and 926 are run 980, 982, and 984 with, or applied to, the entiretraining set 928.

Process 900 then includes classify 986 the output data. Thus, the outputof each of the ACNNLFs 922, 924, and 926 is then classified 986initially into gain and loss training subsets or sets as described abovefor each ACNNLF. The loss data or loss sets are collected into a singleno gain subset 936.

In this stage, however, the gain subset of each filter or neural network(or ACNNLF) 922, 924, 926, is then evaluated against (or run though) allof the other filters 922, 924, or 926 so that each gain subset has beenrun through each filter 922, 924, and 926. The corresponding neuralnetwork 938, 940, and 942, respectively corresponding to filters orneural networks 922, 924, and 926, are assigned to the gain subsetassociated with the same filter that yielded the highest gain among thegain subsets. Thus, for example, the gain subset output from ACNNLF No.1 922 is also run through ACNNLFs Nos. 2 and 3. (924 and 926) This isrepeated for the other two gain subsets so that each ACNNLF Nos. 1, 2,and 3 each output three different gain subsets. Then, among those threeoutput gain subsets from a single ACNNLF, such as ACNNLF No. 1 922 forexample, the ACNNLF No. 1 922 is assigned to its own gain subset withthe highest gain, and this highest gain subset is the input for trainingof the corresponding final ACNNLF NO. 1 938. This is repeated for all ofthe other filters, and here the filters (or neural networks) 924 and926. Thus, this partitions the output from the application of the entiretraining set into four subsets: subset with highest gain for ACNNLF #1930, subset with highest gain for ACNNLF #2 932, subset with highestgain for ACNNLF #3 934, and as mentioned, subset 936 with no gain forany ACNNLF.

Accordingly, process 900 next may include train 988, 990, and 992 theneural networks (or ACNNLFs) 922, 924, and 926 by applying the ACNNLFsto the highest gain data subset 930, 932, and 934 respectively, whichgenerates final trained alternative neural networks 938, 940, and 942.

Returning to process 600, process 600 may include “apply alternativeneural networks for NN filtering at current frame at encoder” 616, andparticularly the inference mode can then be performed where the threefilters (or other number as formed during the training) are applied tothe reconstructed images. By one form, the alternative neural networksreceive reconstructed image data already modified by the other threein-loop filters: ALF, SAO filter, and DBF. Also, as mentioned, theneural network filtering may be applied block by block on a frame, andthen frame by frame.

Process 600 may include “select alternative neural network for neuralnetwork loop filtering depending on output of the alternative neuralnetworks” 618. A filter control then may test the results of the threefilters and select the image data with the best result. This may includea selection based on bit cost, image quality based on noise for example,block level differences (or other level differences) with original imagedata of the current reconstructed frame such as by sum of absolutedifferences (SAD), mean square error (MSE), structural similarity indexmeasure (SSIM), peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), video multi-methodassessment fusion (VMAF), and so forth.

Process 600 may include “provide refined reconstructed frame” 620.Whether at the decoder or encoder, the refined reconstructed frame, orblocks of the frame, are then provided to a prediction unit or referenceframe buffer to be used as reference frames. When the decoder isperforming the neural network filtering, the reconstructed frames may beplaced in memory for further use or provided to a device for display.

Optionally, process 600 may include “transmit at least identification ofat least selected neural network to decoder” 622, and so that thedecoder may simply use the identified neural network rather thanperforming a selection operation among the alternative neural networks.This may be performed by using syntax at one or more header of the imagedata, such as I-slice headers. The syntax is described in detail below.

Also optionally, process 600 may include “transmit at least one of themultiple alternative neural networks to decoder” 624. In this operation,one or all of the alternative neural networks may be transmitted to thedecoder which may include the syntax that indicates the neural networkstructure as well as filter parameters including the weights and biasesfor the neural network. Some of the details for the syntax of the neuralnetwork structure also is provided below.

The process 600 may be repeated for each of the frames in a videosequence that is to be decoded, and has a sufficient amount of previousframe image data for the training when online or real-time training isdesired.

Referring to FIG. 6B, an example process 650 for neural network loopfiltering for video coding is arranged in accordance with at least someimplementations of the present disclosure, and particularly for adecoder. Process 650 may include one or more operations 652-668,generally numbered evenly, performed, for example, by neural networks400 or 500, and system 200, 250, or 1000 of FIG. 4, 5, 2A-2B, or 10respectively, and where relevant.

Process 650 may include “obtain at least one alternative neural network”652, and this may involve obtaining the structure and data from thebitstream, and by one example from the syntax where applicable. By otherforms, the decoder may have a predetermined neural network structure andthe bitstream merely provides the data to populate the structuretemplate. This also may include “obtain selected neural network” 654when the bitstream indicates which neural network is the selectedalternative neural network, then only this single neural network mightbe provided. However, alternatively, no check is made to determine whichalternatives where selected for transmission to the decoder, and thisoperation then may involve “obtain multiple alternative neural networks”656. By this form, all or multiple alternative neural networks aretransmitted and retrieved at the decoder based on the assumption thatdifferent ACNNLFs may be selected at different CTUs so that all ACNNLFcoefficients should be made available to the decoder.

Accordingly, process 600 optionally may include “obtain identificationof at least selected neural network from encoder” 658, and when providedin the bitstream. The identity may be provided in metadata or syntax ofdata headers, such as an I-slice header for example. The syntax belowprovides an example for such identification.

Process 600 may include “apply neural network(s) for NN filtering atcurrent reconstructed frame at decoder” 660, and this may be performeddifferently depending on which alternative neural networks have beenreceived by the decoder and whether the identity of the selected neuralnetwork was received as well. Thus, for example, process 600 may include“apply the identified NN” 662 when the identity and data of the selectedneural network has been transmitted to the decoder. In this case, oncethe ACNNLF is applied and the reconstructed data is refined, process 600may include “provide refined reconstructed frame” 664. The refinedreconstructed frame may be provided as a reference frame for motioncompensation to complete the decoding of other frames. Also, the refinedreconstructed frame may be provided for post-processing if any, such ascolor space conversion, scaling and so forth, and then provided tomemory for further use or to a device for rendering and display. Thisprocess may be repeated for each of the blocks in a frame, and each ofthe frames in a video sequence that is to be decoded.

Syntax Design: ACNNLF Syntax

The parameters of ACNNLF may be signaled in the slice header. By oneexample, in a random access (RA) configuration, only an I-slice hasACNNLF parameters of the RAS. The multi-level on/off (or enablement)control may be applied at a slice level and CTB level for luma andchroma components. In the slice header, one syntax element(acnnlf_luma_slice_enable_flag and acnnlf_chroma_slice_enable_flag) maybe used to indicate ACNNLF enable/disable. At the CTB level, two-bitindicators (or identification codes (IDC)) exist for both luma andchroma, which indicate the ACNNLF is supported in the current CTB, asshown as acnnlf_luma_ctb_idc and acnnlf_chroma_ctb_idc. In the Syntaxlist below, asterisk [*] indicates either an added syntax or syntaxbeing used for the adaptable CNN loop filter method described herein.Definitions of the syntax terms may be already located within the listbut may be recited below the list when not already included. Thosesyntax with definitions or uses that should be clear from the name ofthe syntax or are not related to the NN filtering described herein areomitted. One example syntax list is as follows although other syntaxstructures could be used here instead.

Sequence Parameter Set (SPS) with Raw Byte Sequence Payload (RBSP)seq_parameter_set_rbsp( ) { Descriptor  sps_seq_parameter_set_id ue(v) chroma_format_idc ue(v)  if( chroma_format_idc = = 3 )  separate_colour_plane_flag u(1)  pic_width_in_luma_samples ue(v) pic_height_in_luma_samples ue(v)  bit_depth_luma_minus8 ue(v) bit_depth_chroma_minus8 ue(v)  log2_ctu_size_minus2 ue(v) log2_min_qt_size_intra_slices_minus2 ue(v) log2_min_qt_size_inter_slices_minus2 ue(v) max_mtt_hierarchy_depth_inter_slices ue(v) max_mtt_hierarchy_depth_intra_slices ue(v)  sps_acnnlf_enable_flag    *u(1)  if ( sps_acnnlf_enable_flag ){ *    log2_acnnblock_width   * ue(v)  }   rbsp_trailing_bits( ) }sps_acnnlf_enable_flag indicates whether or not the adaptable neuralnetwork is enabled for the entire RAS or group of pictures.

Slice header syntax slice_header( ) { Descriptor slice_pic_parameter_set_id ue(v)  slice_address u(v)  slice_type ue(v) if ( sps_acnnlf_enable_flag ){   *   if ( slice_type == I ) {     *   acnnlf_luma_params_present_flag    * u(1)   if(acnnlf_luma_params_present_flag) {  *     acnnlf_luma_coeff ()         *    }                 *   acnnlf_chroma_params_present_flag   * u(1)   if(acnnlf_chroma_params_present_flag) { *     acnnlf_chroma_coeff ()        *    }                  *   }                   *   acnnlf_luma_slice _enable_flag      * u(1)   acnnlf_chroma _slice_enable_flag     * u(1)  }                    *  byte_alignment( ) }acnnlf_luma_params_present_flag equal to 1 specifies thatacnnlf_luma_coeff ( ) syntax structure will be present.acnnlf_luma_params_present_flag equal to 0 specifies that theacnnlf_luma_coeff ( ) syntax structure will not be present.acnnlf_chroma params_present_flag equal to 1 specifies thatacnnlf_chroma_coeff ( ) syntax structure will be present. acnnlf_chromaparams_present_flag equal to 0 specifies that the acnnlf_chroma_coeff( )sytnax structure will not be present.

Coding tree unit syntax coding_tree_unit( ) { Descriptor  xCtb = (CtbAddrInRs %  PicWidthInCtbsY ) << CtbLog2SizeY  yCtb = ( CtbAddrInRs /  PicWidthInCtbsY ) << CtbLog2SizeY  if(acnnlf_luma _slice _enable_flag){       *   acnnlf_luma _ctb_idc             * u(2) }                      *  if(acnnlf_chroma _slice _enable_flag){      *   acnnlf_chroma_ctb_idc            * u(2) }                      *  coding_quadtree( xCtb, yCtb, CtbLog2SizeY, 0) }

ACNNLF syntax ** acnnlf_luma_coeff ( ) { Descriptor  num_luma_cnnlf u(3) num_luma_cnnlf_l1size tu(v)  num_luma_cnnlf_l1_output_channel tu(v) num_luma_cnnlf_l2size tu(v)  L1_Input = 6,  L1Size =num_luma_cnnlf_l1size,  M = num_luma_cnnlf_l1_output_channel,  L2Size =num_luma_cnnlf_l2size, K = 4  for( cnnIdx = 0; cnnIdx < num_luma_cnnlf; cnnIdx ++ )   two_layers_cnnlf_coeff(L1_Input, L1Size, M,   L2Size, K)} acnnlf_chroma_coeff ( ) { Descriptor  num_chroma_cnnlf u(3) num_chroma_cnnlf_l1size tu(v)  num_chroma_cnnlf_l1_output_channel tu(v) num_chroma_cnnlf_l2size tu(v)  L1_Input = 6,  L1Size =num_chroma_cnnlf_11size,  M = num_chroma_cnnlf_ l1_output_channel, L2Size = num_chroma_cnnlf_l2size, K = 2  for( cnnIdx = 0; cnnIdx <num_chroma_cnnlf;  cnnIdx ++ )   two_layers_cnnlf_coeff(L1_Input,L1Size, M,   L2Size, K) } two_layers_cnnlf_coeff(L1_Input, L1Size, M,L2Size, K) { Descriptor  for( l1Idx = 0; l1Idx < M; l1Idx++ ) {  l1_cnn_bias[l1Idx] tu(v)  }  for(l1Idx = 0; l1Idx < M; l1Idx ++ )  for( inChIdx = 0; inChIdx < L1_Input; inChIdx ++ )    for( yIdx = 0;yIdx < L1Size; yIdx ++ )     for( xIdx = 0; xIdx < L1Size; xIdx ++ )     cnn_weight[l1Idx][ inChIdx][ yIdx][ xIdx] tu(v)     }  for( l2Idx =0; l2Idx < K; l2Idx++ )   L2_cnn_bias[l2Idx] tu(v)  for(l2Idx = 0; l2Idx< K; l2Idx ++ )   for( inChIdx = 0; inChIdx < M; inChIdx ++ )    for(yIdx = 0; yIdx < L2Size; yIdx ++ )     for( xIdx = 0; xIdx < L2Size;xIdx ++ )      cnn_weight[l2Idx][ inChIdx][ yIdx][ xIdx] tu(v) }

Experimental Results

The following sections describe the settings and results for theexperiments using VTM 3.0 and other experimental parameters from Li, Y.et al., “Methodology and reporting template for neural network codingtool testing,” JVET-L1006, 2018.

Training Stage

Online training based on the video sequence itself was performed foreach Random Access Segment. The initial I-frame and the previous F-1frames were used for training, with F=8 used in the experiments. QPvalues {22, 27, 32, 37} were used. The neural network structure is thatof filter 400 or 500 (FIGS. 4-5) described above and where L1=1 andL2=3.

TABLE 1 ACNNLF Training Setup Information in Training Stage learningrate: 0.0055 optimizer: ADAM batch size: 128 epoch: 148* loss function:Ll training GPU: GTX 1080 Ti training time: 15 minutes* framework:TensorFlow *Measured with A1/A2 video streams, per RAS with trainingprocedure defined in FIG. 2

Inference Stage During Experiments

In an inference stage, the codec uses the model parameters forprediction. At the encoder, all three ACNNLFs are tested to choose thebest ACNNLF. At the decoder, only the signaled ACNNLF for each CTB isused to reconstruct the frame. Currently, the ACNNLF inference module isimplemented in TensorFlow in 8-bit fixed point. VTM 3.0 encoder anddecoder calls the TensorFlow c++library for inference operations. Therewill be some additional cost for memory copy and API calling per call.Thus, the VTM-3.0 runtime does not include ACNNLF training time, butdoes include additional delay calling the TensorFlow inference module.

TABLE 2 ACNNLF Inference Stage Setup Network Details Total Total Conv.FC Frame- Param. Mem. P Mem. T Layers Layers work Num GFLOPs (MB) (MB)One 2 0 Tensor- 692 × 3 Multip.: 0.0028 0.0448 ACNNLF Flow (Luma)264/pixel module 402 × 3 Add: called (Chroma) 265.5/pixel by VTM3.0

Experimental Results

The simulations were performed following JVET common test conditions.See J. Boyce, et al., “JVET common test conditions and softwarereference configuration,” Joint Video Expert Team, JVET-J1010. Only RAvideo sequences are tested, Table 3 shows the results of the proposedscheme on Random Access for Class A1/A2, B and C.

TABLE 3 Experimental Results of the Proposed Scheme (Random Access)Random Access Main 10 Y U V EncT DecT Class A1 −2.37% −1.34% −2.77% 102%529% Class A2 −0.45% −10.92% −6.19%  99% 355% Class B −0.49% −11.29%−10.73% 101% 384% Class C  0.12% −3.31% −1.62%  98% 254% Class E Overall−0.70% −7.10% −5.80% 100% 361%

This IDF presents an ACNNLF design with 3 classes of CNN based loopfilters, where each filter has only 2 CNN layers and 692 parameters. The3 ACNNLFs are adaptively trained with video sequence data. The bestACNNLF is selected for luma and chroma respectively for each CTB at anencoder and indicated to a decoder in coded stream with a 2 bitindicator at the CTB level. This is disclosed on the CTU syntax chartabove.

Compared with VTM-3.0-RA, the proposed ACNNLF achieves −2.37%, −1.34%,and −2.77% BD-rates for Y, U, and V, respectively, for Class A1 videosequences; −0.45%, −10.92%, and −6.19% BD-rates for Y, U, and V,respectively, for Class A2 video sequences; −0.49%, −11.29%, and −10.73%BD-rates for Y, U, and V, respectively, for Class B video sequences; and0.12%, −3.31%, and −1.62% BD-rates for Y, U, and V, respectively, forClass C video sequences.

While any implementation of example the processes or systems herein mayinclude the undertaking of all operations shown in the orderillustrated, the present disclosure is not limited in this regard and,in various examples, implementation of any of the processes herein mayinclude the undertaking of only a subset of the operations shown and/orin a different order than illustrated.

In implementations, features described herein may be undertaken inresponse to instructions provided by one or more computer programproducts. Such program products may include signal bearing mediaproviding instructions that, when executed by, for example, a processor,may provide the functionality described herein. The computer programproducts may be provided in any form of one or more machine-readablemedia. Thus, for example, a processor including one or more processorcore(s) may undertake one or more features described herein in responseto program code and/or instructions or instruction sets conveyed to theprocessor by one or more machine-readable media. In general, amachine-readable medium may convey software in the form of program codeand/or instructions or instruction sets that may cause any of thedevices and/or systems described herein to implement at least portionsof the features described herein. As mentioned previously, in anotherform, a non-transitory article, such as a non-transitory computerreadable medium, may be used with any of the examples mentioned above orother examples except that it does not include a transitory signal perse. It does include those elements other than a signal per se that mayhold data temporarily in a “transitory” fashion such as RAM and soforth.

As used in any implementation described herein, the term “module” refersto any combination of software logic, firmware logic and/or hardwarelogic configured to provide the functionality described herein. Thesoftware may be embodied as a software package, code and/or instructionset or instructions, and “hardware”, as used in any implementationdescribed herein, may include, for example, singly or in anycombination, hardwired circuitry, programmable circuitry, state machinecircuitry, and/or firmware that stores instructions executed byprogrammable circuitry. The modules may, collectively or individually,be embodied as circuitry that forms part of a larger system, forexample, an integrated circuit (IC), system on- chip (SoC), and soforth. For example, a module may be embodied in logic circuitry for theimplementation via software, firmware, or hardware of the coding systemsdiscussed herein.

As used in any implementation described herein, the term “logic unit”refers to any combination of firmware logic and/or hardware logicconfigured to provide the functionality described herein. The“hardware”, as used in any implementation described herein, may include,for example, singly or in any combination, hardwired circuitry,programmable circuitry, state machine circuitry, and/or firmware thatstores instructions executed by programmable circuitry. The logic unitsmay, collectively or individually, be embodied as circuitry that formspart of a larger system, for example, an integrated circuit (IC), systemon-chip (SoC), and so forth. For example, a logic unit may be embodiedin logic circuitry for the implementation firmware or hardware of thecoding systems discussed herein. One of ordinary skill in the art willappreciate that operations performed by hardware and/or firmware mayalternatively be implemented via software, which may be embodied as asoftware package, code and/or instruction set or instructions, and alsoappreciate that logic unit may also utilize a portion of software toimplement its functionality.

As used in any implementation described herein, the term “component” mayrefer to a module or to a logic unit, as these terms are describedabove. Accordingly, the term “component” may refer to any combination ofsoftware logic, firmware logic, and/or hardware logic configured toprovide the functionality described herein. For example, one of ordinaryskill in the art will appreciate that operations performed by hardwareand/or firmware may alternatively be implemented via a software module,which may be embodied as a software package, code and/or instructionset, and also appreciate that a logic unit may also utilize a portion ofsoftware to implement its functionality.

Referring to FIG. 10, an example image processing system (or videocoding system) 1000 for providing neural network loop filters for videocoding may be arranged in accordance with at least some implementationsof the present disclosure. In the illustrated implementation, system1000 may include one or more processor(s) 1003, processing unit(s) 1030to provide the encoder and decoder discussed herein, one or more imagingdevices 1001 to capture images, an antenna 1002 to receive or transmitimage data, a display device 1005, and one or more memory stores 1004.Processor(s) 1003, memory store 1004, and/or display device 1005 may becapable of communication with one another, via, for example, a bus,wires, or other access. In various implementations, display device 1005may be integrated in system 1000 or implemented separately from system1000.

As shown in FIG. 10, and discussed above, the processing unit(s) 1030may have logic modules or circuitry 1050 with a pre-processing unit 1052that modifies raw image data for coding, and a coder 1054 that could beencoder 200 or decoder 250, or some combination of these. Relevant here,the coder 1054 may have a decoding loop (decoder) filter unit 1056 thathas a neural network unit 1058 with a CNNLF unit 1060 (used when theACNNLF is not enabled), an ACNNLF unit 1061, a training unit 1062, and aneural network selection (or output) selection unit 1063. The filterunit 1056 also may have a DBF unit 1064, an ALF unit 1066, a SAO unit1068, and a filter control 1063. The coder 1054 also may have othercoding units 1069 which may include video coding units not mentioned yetincluding any or all of the other units of the encoder 200 or decoder250 described above for example. All of these perform the tasks asdescribed in detail above and as the title of the unit suggests.

As will be appreciated, the modules illustrated in FIG. 10 may include avariety of software and/or hardware modules and/or modules that may beimplemented via software or hardware or combinations thereof. Forexample, the modules may be implemented as software via processing units1020 or the modules may be implemented via a dedicated hardware portion.Also, system 1000 may be implemented in a variety of ways. For example,system 1000 (excluding display device 1005) may be implemented as asingle chip or device having an accelerator or a graphics processor unit(GPU) which may or may not have image signal processors (ISPs), aquad-core central processing unit, and/or a memory controllerinput/output (I/O) module. In other examples, system 1000 (againexcluding display device 1005) may be implemented as a chipset or asystem on a chip (SoC). It will be understood antenna 1002 could be usedto receive image data for encoding as well.

Otherwise, processor(s) 1003 may include any suitable implementationincluding, for example, central processing units (CPUs),microprocessor(s), multicore processors, application specific integratedcircuits, chip(s), chipsets, programmable logic devices, graphics cards,integrated graphics, general purpose graphics processing unit(s), fixedfunction GPUs, SoCs, other accelerators, or the like. This may alsoinclude or define a pipeline that has multiple parallel pipeline unitsthat can each process a different large block. The implementation is notlimited to perform video coding tasks, and specifically the neuralnetwork filters, and that can use software, firmware, and/or hardwareincluding fixed function hardware to efficiently perform the repetitivecomputations of the neural network filters, or other tasks, andconsistent with the description above.

In addition, memory stores 1004 may be any type of memory such asvolatile memory (e.g., Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), DynamicRandom Access Memory (DRAM), etc.) or non-volatile memory (e.g., flashmemory, etc.), and so forth. In a non-limiting example, memory stores1004 also may be implemented via cache memory.

In various implementations, the example video coding system 1000 may usethe imaging device 1001 to form or receive captured image data. This canbe implemented in various ways. Thus, in one form, the image processingsystem 1000 may be one or more digital cameras or other image capturedevices, and imaging device 1001, in this case, may be the camerahardware and camera sensor software, module, or component. In otherexamples, video coding system 1000 may have an imaging device 1001 thatincludes or may be one or more cameras, and logic modules 1050 maycommunicate remotely with, or otherwise may be communicatively coupledto, the imaging device 1001 for further processing of the image data.

Thus, video coding system 1000 may be, or may be part of, or may be incommunication with, a smartphone, tablet, laptop, or other mobile devicesuch as wearables including smart glasses, smart headphones, exercisebands, and so forth. In any of these cases, such technology may includea camera such as a digital camera system, a dedicated camera device, oran imaging phone or tablet, whether a still picture or video camera,camera that provides a preview screen, or some combination of these.Thus, in one form, imaging device 1001 may include camera hardware andoptics including one or more sensors as well as auto-focus, zoom,aperture, ND-filter, auto-exposure, flash, and actuator controls. Theimaging device 1001 also may have a lens, an image sensor with a RGBBayer color filter, an analog amplifier, an A/D converter, othercomponents to convert incident light into a digital signal, the like,and/or combinations thereof. The digital signal also may be referred toas the raw image data herein.

Other forms include a camera sensor-type imaging device or the like (forexample, a webcam or webcam sensor or other complementarymetal-oxide-semiconductor-type image sensor (CMOS)), without the use ofa red-green-blue (RGB) depth camera and/or microphone-array to locatewho is speaking. In other examples, an RGB-Depth camera and/ormicrophone-array might be used in addition to or in the alternative to acamera sensor. In some examples, imaging device 1001 may be providedwith an eye tracking camera. Otherwise, the imaging device 1001 may beany other device that records, displays or processes digital images suchas video game panels or consoles, set top boxes, and so forth.

As illustrated, any of these components may be capable of communicationwith one another and/or communication with portions of logic modules1050 and/or imaging device 1001. Thus, processors 1003 may becommunicatively coupled to both the image device 1001 and the logicmodules 1050 for operating those components. Although image processingsystem 1000, as shown in FIG. 10, may include one particular set ofblocks or actions associated with particular components or modules,these blocks or actions may be associated with different components ormodules than the particular component or module illustrated here.

Referring to FIG. 11, an example system 1100 in accordance with thepresent disclosure and various implementations may embody system 1100for example, and may be a media system although system 1100 is notlimited to this context. For example, system 1100 may be incorporatedinto a personal computer (PC), laptop computer, ultra-laptop computer,tablet, touch pad, portable computer, handheld computer, palmtopcomputer, personal digital assistant (PDA), cellular telephone,combination cellular telephone/PDA, television, smart device (e.g.,smart phone, smart tablet or smart television), mobile internet device(MID), messaging device, data communication device, and so forth.

In various implementations, system 1100 includes a platform 1102communicatively coupled to a display 1120. Platform 1102 may receivecontent from a content device such as content services device(s) 1130 orcontent delivery device(s) 1140 or other similar content sources. Anavigation controller 1150 including one or more navigation features maybe used to interact with, for example, platform 1102 and/or display1120. Each of these components is described in greater detail below.

In various implementations, platform 1102 may include any combination ofa chipset 1105, processor 1110, memory 1112, storage 1114, graphicssubsystem 1115, applications 1116 and/or radio 1118 as well asantenna(s) 1111. Chipset 1105 may provide intercommunication amongprocessor 1110, memory 1112, storage 1114, graphics subsystem 1115,applications 1116 and/or radio 1118. For example, chipset 1105 mayinclude a storage adapter (not depicted) capable of providingintercommunication with storage 1114.

Processor 1110 may be implemented as a Complex Instruction Set Computer(CISC) or Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) processors; x86instruction set compatible processors, multi-core, or any othermicroprocessor or central processing unit (CPU). In variousimplementations, processor 1110 may be dual-core processor(s), dual-coremobile processor(s), and so forth.

Memory 1112 may be implemented as a volatile memory device such as, butnot limited to, a Random Access Memory (RAM), Dynamic Random AccessMemory (DRAM), or Static RAM (SRAM).

Storage 1114 may be implemented as a non-volatile storage device suchas, but not limited to, a magnetic disk drive, optical disk drive, tapedrive, an internal storage device, an attached storage device, flashmemory, battery backed-up SDRAM (synchronous DRAM), and/or a networkaccessible storage device. In various implementations, storage 1114 mayinclude technology to increase the storage performance enhancedprotection for valuable digital media when multiple hard drives areincluded, for example.

Graphics subsystem 1115 may perform processing of images such as stillor video for display. Graphics subsystem 1115 may be a graphicsprocessing unit (GPU) or a visual processing unit (VPU), for example. Ananalog or digital interface may be used to communicatively couplegraphics subsystem 1115 and display 1120. For example, the interface maybe any of a High-Definition Multimedia Interface, Display Port, wirelessHDMI, and/or wireless HD compliant techniques. Graphics subsystem 1115may be integrated into processor 1110 or chipset 1105. In someimplementations, graphics subsystem 1115 may be a stand-alone cardcommunicatively coupled to chipset 1105.

The graphics and/or video processing techniques described herein may beimplemented in various hardware architectures including fixed functionhardware such as video motion estimation (VME) engines or similarparallel processing circuits. For example, graphics and/or videofunctionality may be integrated within a chipset. Alternatively, adiscrete graphics and/or video processor may be used. As still anotherimplementation, the graphics and/or video functions may be provided by ageneral purpose processor, including a multi-core processor. In otherimplementations, the functions may be implemented in a consumerelectronics device.

Radio 1118 may include one or more radios capable of transmitting andreceiving signals using various suitable wireless communicationstechniques. Such techniques may involve communications across one ormore wireless networks. Example wireless networks include (but are notlimited to) wireless local area networks (WLANs), wireless personal areanetworks (WPANs), wireless metropolitan area network (WMANs), cellularnetworks, and satellite networks. In communicating across such networks,radio 1118 may operate in accordance with one or more applicablestandards in any version.

In various implementations, display 1120 may include any television typemonitor or display. Display 1120 may include, for example, a computerdisplay screen, touch screen display, video monitor, television-likedevice, and/or a television. Display 1120 may be digital and/or analog.In various implementations, display 1120 may be a holographic display.Also, display 1120 may be a transparent surface that may receive avisual projection. Such projections may convey various forms ofinformation, images, and/or objects. For example, such projections maybe a visual overlay for a mobile augmented reality (MAR) application.Under the control of one or more software applications 1116, platform1102 may display user interface 1122 on display 1120.

In various implementations, content services device(s) 1130 may behosted by any national, international and/or independent service andthus accessible to platform 1102 via the Internet, for example. Contentservices device(s) 1130 may be coupled to platform 1102 and/or todisplay 1120. Platform 1102 and/or content services device(s) 1130 maybe coupled to a network 1160 to communicate (e.g., send and/or receive)media information to and from network 1160. Content delivery device(s)1140 also may be coupled to platform 1102 and/or to display 1120.

In various implementations, content services device(s) 1130 may includea cable television box, personal computer, network, telephone, Internetenabled devices or appliance capable of delivering digital informationand/or content, and any other similar device capable of unidirectionallyor bidirectionally communicating content between content providers andplatform 1102 and/display 1120, via network 1160 or directly. It will beappreciated that the content may be communicated unidirectionally and/orbidirectionally to and from any one of the components in system 1100 anda content provider via network 1160. Examples of content may include anymedia information including, for example, video, music, medical andgaming information, and so forth.

Content services device(s) 1130 may receive content such as cabletelevision programming including media information, digital information,and/or other content. Examples of content providers may include anycable or satellite television or radio or Internet content providers.The provided examples are not meant to limit implementations inaccordance with the present disclosure in any way.

In various implementations, platform 1102 may receive control signalsfrom navigation controller 1150 having one or more navigation features.The navigation features of controller 1150 may be used to interact withuser interface 1122, for example. In implementations, navigationcontroller 1150 may be a pointing device that may be a computer hardwarecomponent (specifically, a human interface device) that allows a user toinput spatial (e.g., continuous and multi-dimensional) data into acomputer. Many systems such as graphical user interfaces (GUI), andtelevisions and monitors allow the user to control and provide data tothe computer or television using physical gestures.

Movements of the navigation features of controller 1150 may bereplicated on a display (e.g., display 1120) by movements of a pointer,cursor, focus ring, or other visual indicators displayed on the display.For example, under the control of software applications 1116, thenavigation features located on navigation controller 1150 may be mappedto virtual navigation features displayed on user interface 1122, forexample. In implementations, controller 1150 may not be a separatecomponent but may be integrated into platform 1102 and/or display 1120.The present disclosure, however, is not limited to the elements or inthe context shown or described herein.

In various implementations, drivers (not shown) may include technologyto enable users to instantly turn on and off platform 1102 like atelevision with the touch of a button after initial boot-up, whenenabled, for example. Program logic may allow platform 1102 to streamcontent to media adaptors or other content services device(s) 1130 orcontent delivery device(s) 1140 even when the platform is turned “off.”In addition, chipset 1105 may include hardware and/or software supportfor 7.1 surround sound audio and/or high definition (7.1) surround soundaudio, for example. Drivers may include a graphics driver for integratedgraphics platforms. In implementations, the graphics driver may comprisea peripheral component interconnect (PCI) Express graphics card.

In various implementations, any one or more of the components shown insystem 1100 may be integrated. For example, platform 1102 and contentservices device(s) 1130 may be integrated, or platform 1102 and contentdelivery device(s) 1140 may be integrated, or platform 1102, contentservices device(s) 1130, and content delivery device(s) 1140 may beintegrated, for example. In various implementations, platform 1102 anddisplay 1120 may be an integrated unit. Display 1120 and content servicedevice(s) 1130 may be integrated, or display 1120 and content deliverydevice(s) 1140 may be integrated, for example. These examples are notmeant to limit the present disclosure.

In various implementations, system 1100 may be implemented as a wirelesssystem, a wired system, or a combination of both. When implemented as awireless system, system 1100 may include components and interfacessuitable for communicating over a wireless shared media, such as one ormore antennas, transmitters, receivers, transceivers, amplifiers,filters, control logic, and so forth. An example of wireless sharedmedia may include portions of a wireless spectrum, such as the RFspectrum and so forth. When implemented as a wired system, system 1100may include components and interfaces suitable for communicating overwired communications media, such as input/output (I/O) adapters,physical connectors to connect the I/O adapter with a correspondingwired communications medium, a network interface card (NIC), disccontroller, video controller, audio controller, and the like. Examplesof wired communications media may include a wire, cable, metal leads,printed circuit board (PCB), backplane, switch fabric, semiconductormaterial, twisted-pair wire, co-axial cable, fiber optics, and so forth.

Platform 1102 may establish one or more logical or physical channels tocommunicate information. The information may include media informationand control information. Media information may refer to any datarepresenting content meant for a user. Examples of content may include,for example, data from a voice conversation, videoconference, streamingvideo, electronic mail (“email”) message, voice mail message,alphanumeric symbols, graphics, image, video, text and so forth. Datafrom a voice conversation may be, for example, speech information,silence periods, background noise, comfort noise, tones and so forth.Control information may refer to any data representing commands,instructions or control words meant for an automated system. Forexample, control information may be used to route media informationthrough a system, or instruct a node to process the media information ina predetermined manner. The implementations, however, are not limited tothe elements or in the context shown or described in FIG. 11.

Referring to FIG. 12, and as described above, systems 1000 and 1100 maybe embodied in varying physical styles or form factors including a smallform factor device 1200, arranged in accordance with at least someimplementations of the present disclosure. Thus, in some examples,systems 1000 or 1100 may be implemented via device 1200. In otherexamples, other devices or systems, or portions thereof may beimplemented via device 1200. In various implementations, for example,device 1200 may be implemented as a mobile computing device a havingwireless capabilities. A mobile computing device may refer to any devicehaving a processing system and a mobile power source or supply, such asone or more batteries, for example.

Examples of a mobile computing device may include a personal computer(PC), laptop computer, ultra-laptop computer, tablet, touch pad,portable computer, handheld computer, palmtop computer, personal digitalassistant (PDA), cellular telephone, combination cellular telephone/PDA,smart device (e.g., smart phone, smart tablet or smart mobiletelevision), mobile internet device (MID), messaging device, datacommunication device, cameras, and so forth.

Examples of a mobile computing device also may include computers thatare arranged to be worn by a person, such as a wrist computers, fingercomputers, ring computers, eyeglass computers, belt-clip computers,arm-band computers, shoe computers, clothing computers, and otherwearable computers. In various implementations, for example, a mobilecomputing device may be implemented as a smart phone capable ofexecuting computer applications, as well as voice communications and/ordata communications. Although some implementations may be described witha mobile computing device implemented as a smart phone by way ofexample, it may be appreciated that other implementations may beimplemented using other wireless mobile computing devices as well. Theimplementations are not limited in this context.

As shown in FIG. 12, device 1200 may include a housing with a front 1201and a back 1202. Device 1200 includes a display 1204, an input/output(I/O) device 1206, and an integrated antenna 1208. Device 1200 also mayinclude navigation features 1212, and one or more microphones 1214. I/Odevice 1206 may include any suitable I/O device for entering informationinto a mobile computing device. Examples for I/O device 1206 may includean alphanumeric keyboard, a numeric keypad, a touch pad, input keys,buttons, switches, microphones, speakers, voice recognition device andsoftware, and so forth. Information also may be entered into device 1200by way of microphone 201, or may be digitized by a voice recognitiondevice. As shown, device 1200 may include a camera 1205 (e.g., includinga lens, an aperture, and an imaging sensor) and a flash 1210 integratedinto back 1202 (or elsewhere) of device 1200.

Various implementations may be implemented using hardware elements, andincluding those specified above that are implemented as neural networkaccelerators (NNAs). Otherwise, when not specified, the implementationsmay be implemented as hardware elements, software elements, or acombination of both. Examples of other hardware elements may includeprocessors, microprocessors, circuits, circuit elements (e.g.,transistors, resistors, capacitors, inductors, and so forth), integratedcircuits, application specific integrated circuits (ASIC), programmablelogic devices (PLD), digital signal processors (DSP), field programmablegate array (FPGA), logic gates, registers, semiconductor device, chips,microchips, chip sets, and so forth. Examples of software may includesoftware components, programs, applications, computer programs,application programs, system programs, machine programs, operatingsystem software, middleware, firmware, software modules, routines,subroutines, functions, methods, procedures, software interfaces,application program interfaces (API), instruction sets, computing code,computer code, code segments, computer code segments, words, values,symbols, or any combination thereof. Determining whether animplementation is implemented using hardware elements and/or softwareelements may vary in accordance with any number of factors, such asdesired computational rate, power levels, heat tolerances, processingcycle budget, input data rates, output data rates, memory resources,data bus speeds and other design or performance constraints.

One or more aspects of at least one implementation may be implemented byrepresentative instructions stored on a machine-readable medium whichrepresents various logic within the processor, which when read by amachine causes the machine to fabricate logic to perform the techniquesdescribed herein. Such representations, known as “IP cores” may bestored on a tangible, machine readable medium and supplied to variouscustomers or manufacturing facilities to load into the fabricationmachines that actually make the logic or processor.

While certain features set forth herein have been described withreference to various implementations, this description is not intendedto be construed in a limiting sense. Hence, various modifications of theimplementations described herein, as well as other implementations,which are apparent to persons skilled in the art to which the presentdisclosure pertains are deemed to lie within the spirit and scope of thepresent disclosure.

The following examples pertain to additional implementations.

By an example first implementation, a computer-implemented method ofvideo coding comprises obtaining compressed image data of at least oneframe of a video sequence; decoding the at least one frame to form areconstructed version of the frame; applying multiple alternativeconvolutional neural networks to at least the same part of thereconstructed version of the at least one frame; selecting one of theconvolutional neural networks based on at least one criterion, andrefining the image data of the part comprising using the output of theselected convolutional neural network.

Further to the first implementation, the method includes that themultiple alternative convolutional neural networks at least partlyestablish an adaptable neural network in-loop filter on a decoding loopof an encoder.

Further to the first implementation, the method includes indicating aselection among the alternative convolutional neural networks in syntaxdata transmitted from an encoder to a remote decoder.

Further to the first implementation, the method includes that therefining occurs at a decoder remote from an encoder and according to aselection indicated by the encoder so that the decoder does not need toperform the selecting.

Further to the first implementation, the method includes that receivingthe multiple alternative convolutional neural networks and theidentification of the selected convolutional neural networks at adecoder remote from an encoder, and the decoder performing the refining.

Further to the first implementation, the method includes that receivingthe multiple alternative convolutional neural networks and theidentification of the selected convolutional neural networks at adecoder remote from an encoder, and the decoder performing the refining,and that the method includes the encoder transmits all alternativeconvolutional neural networks to a decoder without checking whichalternative neural networks were selected for a block.

Further to the first implementation, the method includes that theencoder trains the multiple alternative convolutional neural networksbefore transmitting the multiple alternative convolutional neuralnetworks to the decoder.

Further to the first implementation, the method includes that each ofthe multiple alternative convolutional neural networks has only twoconvolutional layers.

Further to the first implementation, the method includes that each ofthe multiple alternative convolutional neural networks has only twoconvolutional layers, and that a rectified linear operation is performedon the output of a first layer of the two convolutional layers.

Further to the first implementation, the method includes that the twoconvolutional layers comprises a first 1×1 filter layer and a second 3×3filter layer.

Further to the first implementation, the method includes that theselecting is performed during a run-time to complete an encode or decodeof the at least one frame comprising forming a dataset to train theconvolutional neural networks with image data of a set of previousframes already reconstructed.

Further to the first implementation, the method includes generating andtraining the multiple alternative convolutional neural networks during arun-time of an encoder and before applying the multiple alternativeconvolutional neural networks to the reconstructed version of the atleast one frame comprising applying an initial neural network to a fulltraining dataset to obtain an output dataset; and partitioning theoutput dataset by at least one criterion to form separate datasets totrain separate neural networks.

In a variation of the first implementation a computer implemented methodof video coding comprises obtaining compressed image data of at leastone frame of a video sequence; decoding the at least one frame to form areconstructed version of the frame; and refining the image data of atleast one part of the at least one frame comprising (a) receivingidentification of a selected alternative convolutional neural networkand that was selected among multiple alternative convolutional neuralnetworks at an encoder and applied to at least the same part of thereconstructed version of the at least one frame, and (b) applying theselected convolutional neural network to the at least one part.

By an example second implementation, a computer-implemented system hasat least one display; memory to store image data of at least one frameof a video sequence; at least one processor communicatively coupled tothe memory and display, and the at least one processor to operate by:obtaining compressed image data of at least one current frame of a videosequence; decoding the at least one current frame to form areconstructed version of the current frame; during a run-time of anencoder, training multiple alternative convolutional neural networks tooutput data used to refine image data of the reconstructed version ofthe frame and comprising establishing an initial training datasetcomprising image data of a set of frames decoded previously to thedecoding of the current frame; and applying the multiple alternativeconvolutional neural networks to the reconstructed version of thecurrent frame to refine the image data of the current frame.

Further to the second implementation, the system comprises applying themultiple alternative convolutional neural networks to at least the samepart of the reconstructed version of the at least one frame; selectingone of the convolutional neural networks based on at least onecriterion, and refining the image data of the part comprising using theoutput of the selected convolutional neural network.

Further to the second implementation, the system includes that thetraining dataset comprises data only of one or more I-frames and framesthat use the I-frame as a reference frame.

Further to the second implementation, the system includes that thetraining dataset comprises data only of the same random access segmentor group of pictures.

Further to the second implementation, the system includes that thetraining dataset comprises data of a predetermined number of framesbefore the current frame regardless of frame location in a particularrandom access segment and group of pictures.

Further to the second implementation, the system includes that the atleast one processor to operate by training the multiple alternativeconvolutional neural networks before applying the multiple alternativeconvolutional neural networks to the reconstructed version of the atleast one frame comprising applying an initial neural network to a fulltraining dataset to obtain an output dataset; and partitioning theoutput dataset by at least one criterion to form separate datasets totrain separate neural networks.

As an example third implementation, at least one non-transitorycomputer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions that whenexecuted cause a computing device to operate by: obtaining compressedimage data of at least one current frame of a video sequence; decodingthe at least one current frame to form a reconstructed version of thecurrent frame; during a run-time of an encoder, training multiplealternative convolutional neural networks to output data used to refineimage data of the reconstructed version of the frame and comprisingestablishing an initial training dataset comprising image data of a setof frames decoded previously to the decoding of the current frame; andapplying the multiple alternative convolutional neural networks to thereconstructed version of the current frame to refine the image data ofthe current frame.

Further to the third implementation, the training comprises applying aninitial neural network to the initial training dataset, partitioning theoutput data of the initial neural network into subsets based on at leastone criterion, using at least one of the subsets to train a separateneural network, and repeating the partitioning and using of subsetsuntil a desired number of multiple alternative neural networks isreached.

Further to the third implementation, the training comprises applying aninitial neural network to the initial training dataset, partitioning theoutput data of the initial neural network into subsets based on at leastone criterion, using at least one of the subsets to train a separateneural network, and repeating the partitioning and using of subsetsuntil a desired number of multiple alternative neural networks isreached, and the criterion is whether values of the output data indicatea gain versus a loss, wherein gain refers to output image data becomingcloser in value to original image data of the same pixel or blocklocation than the input reconstructed image data, and wherein lossrefers to output image data becoming farther in value from originalimage data of the same pixel or block location than the inputreconstructed image data.

Further to the third implementation, the training comprises applying aninitial neural network to the initial training dataset, partitioning theoutput data of the initial neural network into subsets based on at leastone criterion, using at least one of the subsets to train a separateneural network, and repeating the partitioning and using of subsetsuntil a desired number of multiple alternative neural networks isreached, and the criterion is whether values of the output data indicatea gain versus a loss, wherein gain refers to output image data becomingcloser in value to original image data of the same pixel or blocklocation than the input reconstructed image data, and wherein lossrefers to output image data becoming farther in value from originalimage data of the same pixel or block location than the inputreconstructed image data, and only a loss-associated subset is used totrain a new alternative neural network after two alternative neuralnetworks are trained at least once.

Further to the third implementation, the training comprises applying aninitial neural network to the initial training dataset, partitioning theoutput data of the initial neural network into subsets based on at leastone criterion, using at least one of the subsets to train a separateneural network, and repeating the partitioning and using of subsetsuntil a desired number of multiple alternative neural networks isreached, and after three or more neural networks are established, theinstructions cause the computing device to operate by training theneural networks on the highest gain output data subset among outputsubsets from the three or more neural networks resulting from applyingthe three or more neural networks to the initial training set.

Further to the third implementation, the instructions cause thecomputing device to operate by applying the multiple alternativeconvolutional neural networks to at least the same part of thereconstructed version of the at least one frame; selecting one of theconvolutional neural networks based on at least one criterion, andrefining the image data of the part comprising using the output of theselected convolutional neural network.

Further to the third implementation, the initial training datasetcomprises data of a predetermined number of frames before a currentframe and not after the current frame being reconstructed and inencoding order.

In a further example, at least one machine readable medium may include aplurality of instructions that in response to being executed on acomputing device, causes the computing device to perform the methodaccording to any one of the above examples.

In a still further example, an apparatus may include means forperforming the methods according to any one of the above examples.

The above examples may include specific combination of features.However, the above examples are not limited in this regard and, invarious implementations, the above examples may include undertaking onlya subset of such features, undertaking a different order of suchfeatures, undertaking a different combination of such features, and/orundertaking additional features than those features explicitly listed.For example, all features described with respect to the example methodsmay be implemented with respect to the example apparatus, the examplesystems, and/or the example articles, and vice versa.

1. A computer implemented method of video coding comprising: obtainingcompressed image data of at least one frame of a video sequence;decoding the at least one frame to form a reconstructed version of theframe; applying multiple alternative convolutional neural networks tothe same pixel locations of the reconstructed version of the at leastone frame; and selecting one of the convolutional neural networks to useoutput of the selected convolutional neural network to refine image dataof the pixel locations.
 2. The method of claim 1 wherein the multiplealternative convolutional neural networks at least partly establish anadaptable neural network in-loop filter on a decoding loop of anencoder.
 3. The method of claim 1 comprising indicating a selectionamong the alternative convolutional neural networks in syntax datatransmitted from an encoder to a decoder remote from the encoder.
 4. Themethod of claim 1 wherein the refining occurs at a decoder remote froman encoder and according to a selection indicated by the encoder so thatthe decoder does not need to perform the selecting.
 5. The method ofclaim 1 comprising receiving the multiple alternative convolutionalneural networks and the identification of the selected convolutionalneural networks at a decoder remote from an encoder, and the decoderperforming the refining.
 6. The method of claim 1 comprisingtransmitting all alternative convolutional neural networks from anencoder and to a decoder regardless of which alternative neural networkwas selected for the pixel locations.
 7. The method of claim 1 whereinthe encoder trains the multiple alternative convolutional neuralnetworks before transmitting the multiple alternative convolutionalneural networks to the decoder.
 8. The method of claim 1 wherein each ofthe multiple alternative convolutional neural networks has only twoconvolutional layers.
 9. The method of claim 8 wherein a rectifiedlinear operation is performed on the output of a first layer of the twoconvolutional layers.
 10. The method of claim 8 wherein the twoconvolutional layers comprises a first 1×1 filter layer and a second 3×3filter layer.
 11. A decoder comprising processor circuitry beingarranged to operate by: obtaining compressed image data of at least oneframe of a video sequence; decoding the at least one frame to form areconstructed version of the frame; applying multiple alternativeconvolutional neural networks to the same pixel locations of thereconstructed version of the at least one frame; and selecting one ofthe convolutional neural networks to use output of the selectedconvolutional neural network to refine image data of the pixellocations.
 12. The decoder of claim 11 wherein the decoder receives themultiple alternative convolutional neural networks from an encoderremote from the decoder.
 13. The decoder of claim 11 wherein the decoderreceives data from an encoder remote from the decoder, and to populatepredetermined neural network structures of the multiple alternativeconvolutional neural networks at the decoder.
 14. An encoder comprisingprocessor circuitry and a decoding loop, the encoder being arranged tooperate by: obtaining compressed image data of the at least one frame ofthe video sequence; decoding the at least one frame to form areconstructed version of the frame on the decoding loop; applyingmultiple alternative convolutional neural networks to the same pixellocations of the reconstructed version of the at least one frame; andselecting one of the convolutional neural networks to use output of theselected convolutional neural network to refine image data of the pixellocations.
 15. The encoder of claim 14 being arranged to operate by:during a run-time of the encoder, training multiple alternativeconvolutional neural networks to output data used to refine image dataof the reconstructed version of the frame and comprising establishing aninitial training dataset comprising image data of a set of framesdecoded previously to the decoding of the current frame; and applyingthe multiple alternative convolutional neural networks to thereconstructed version of the current frame to refine the image data ofthe current frame.
 16. The encoder of claim 15 wherein the trainingdataset comprises data only of one or more I-frames and frames that usethe I-frame as a reference frame.
 17. The encoder of claim 15 whereinthe training dataset comprises data only of the same random accesssegment or group of pictures.
 18. The encoder of claim 15 wherein thetraining dataset comprises data of a predetermined number of framesbefore the current frame regardless of current frame location in aparticular random access segment and group of pictures.
 19. The encoderof claim 15 wherein the at least one processor to operate by trainingthe multiple alternative convolutional neural networks before applyingthe multiple alternative convolutional neural networks to thereconstructed version of the at least one frame comprising applying aninitial neural network to a full training dataset to obtain an outputdataset; and partitioning the output dataset by at least one criterionto form separate datasets to train separate neural networks.
 20. Atleast one non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereoninstructions that when executed cause a computing device to operate by:obtaining compressed image data of at least one frame of a videosequence; decoding the at least one frame to form a reconstructedversion of the frame; applying multiple alternative convolutional neuralnetworks to the same pixel locations of the reconstructed version of theat least one frame; and selecting one of the convolutional neuralnetworks to use output of the selected convolutional neural network torefine image data of the pixel locations.
 21. The medium of claim 20wherein the instructions caused the computing device to operate by:during a run-time of an encoder, training multiple alternativeconvolutional neural networks to output data used to refine image dataof the reconstructed version of the frame and comprising establishing aninitial training dataset comprising image data of a set of framesdecoded previously to the decoding of the current frame; and applyingthe multiple alternative convolutional neural networks to thereconstructed version of the current frame to refine the image data ofthe current frame.
 22. The medium of claim 21 wherein the trainingcomprises applying an initial neural network to the initial trainingdataset, partitioning the output data of the initial neural network intosubsets based on at least one criterion, using at least one of thesubsets to train a separate neural network, and repeating thepartitioning and using of subsets until a desired number of multiplealternative neural networks is reached.
 23. The medium of claim 22wherein the criterion is whether values of the output data indicate again versus a loss, wherein gain refers to output image data becomingcloser in value to original image data of the same pixel or blocklocation than the input reconstructed image data, and wherein lossrefers to output image data becoming farther in value from originalimage data of the same pixel or block location than the inputreconstructed image data.
 24. The medium of claim 21 wherein only aloss-associated subset is used to train a new alternative neural networkafter at least two alternative neural networks are trained at leastonce.
 25. The medium of claim 20 wherein after three or more neuralnetworks are established, the instructions cause the computing device tooperate by training the neural networks on the highest gain output datasubset among output subsets from the three or more neural networksresulting from applying the three or more neural networks to the initialtraining dataset.